I arrived early to the tribal survivors meeting. Upon seeing the inhabitants, I immediately regret my decision.
One native survivor in particular, we’ll call him Brutus, enjoys repeating stories of his past, even if no one cares or enjoys them. The volume and over-bearing tone of his voice grates my ears like cheese on a cheese grater… like vegan “cheese”.
I hate vegan cheese. Brutus is a large hunk of vegan cheese.
Except I like cheese.
And Brutus isn’t imitating anything I like, he’s just annoying.
The Survivors Journal is a hand-written satirical and sarcastic blog written by a student as he interacts with characters during his final weeks as an undergraduate student. It’s probably not very good, and rather inside-baseball.
6:15 pm |
January 13 2011
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tagged: coping the survivors journal i write stuff cheese vegans
May the Gods have mercy on us all.
The boat plane crashed on the island. I don’t know where the rear of the plane is. Only a handful of us survived. There are noises. Perhaps even ghosts or phantoms.
The survivors are loud. They’re optimistic for rescue, however I’m taking the high road and preparing for the long haul. I believe I have enough supplies for myself for at least 16 weeks.
In addition: Women can’t drive.
The Survivors Journal is a hand-written satirical and sarcastic blog written by a student as he interacts with characters during his final weeks as an undergraduate student. It’s probably not very good, and rather inside-baseball.
5:41 pm |
January 11 2011
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tagged: coping the survivors journal i write stuff
From what I’ve heard through the backchannels, I’m not popular with the higher-ups on campus following my video criticism post last week. Apparently there was an avalanche of e-mails and messages happening behind the scenes between departments and staff members, which was all a consequence of me expressing my opinion. Many, if not most people understood my point, but misinterpreted why I wrote what I wrote.
I have been attending Lawrence Tech since the fall of 2004, initially pursuing an Engineering degree, but now graduating with a Media Communication degree. My father graduated here with two degrees back in the 70’s. I lived on campus earlier this year. I’ve worked here for nearly two years. Dare I say that Lawrence Tech is something important to me.
I (re)enrolled in Media Communication about two and a half years ago, not long after the program began. During that time, I’ve had teachers and professors who taught for the first time, classes that had never been offered before, and friends and classmates who have all gone through this growing pain.
But it’s through this growing process of the program, the school, and myself that I’m proud of. It’s not a perfect place, and there are absolutely holes to be filled and gaps to be jumped over, but the work I’ve personally put into the school here is work I am proud of. The potential for success here is high, provided there are students and faculty wanting it. Come May, I’ll be one of the first Media Communication graduates of Lawrence Tech. Damn if that’s not cool to say.
On top of that, when I was an Engineering student years ago, every single professor I had in the field was intelligent and competent in his or her field of study. Classes were, and still are, small. It’s a small school where everyone knows everyone. Regardless of some complaints floating around campus, I do believe that everyone here is a member of a community; no one is just “going” to school.
All of this is why I decided to publicly post my complaints regarding that video. From what I’ve heard through the backchannels, that video will be used to promote our school. If you’ve read this far, I challenge you to connect the last few paragraphs to that “promotional” video. The video may contain a message, but that message is lost to a visual mess.
I simply want Lawrence Tech to be properly represented, especially when it comes to something that represents us through a technological medium. It’s our middle name, we should probably live up to it.
1:07 pm |
December 2 2010
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tagged: lawrence tech ltu i write stuff tl;dr
Update 12/2/2010: Response Curve - Additions and a few other things
Some time this past weekend, a department on campus uploaded this video to Lawrence Tech’s YouTube page. As a Media Communication student of Lawrence Tech who has been gaining experience in video production and social media/marketing in and out of the classroom, I am in firm belief that this video is an outright embarrassment to our university, and does not correctly represent our school at all.
Disclaimer: I am a part-time employee and full-time student of Lawrence Technological University, however my opinions here do not necessarily reflect those of my co-workers, fellow students, or classmates.
I was shocked at what I saw when I visited LTU’s YouTube channel yesterday. Simply glancing at the YouTube page, without hitting the play button, I noticed a couple of things:
- The only video quality option provided is 320x240 (240p); roughly this is equivalent to a camera phone still image from 2005. Quality this low from a university whose “middle name” is Technological is inexcusable.
- The video length is 5:41. That’s 5 minutes and 41 seconds. Five minutes. Forty-one seconds. Nobody watches 5 minute YouTube videos. It’s basic marketing 101 to know who your audience is, and how your audience will consume your content. If you’re posting video online and intend for it to be viewed by potential future students (and especially for high school seniors), it needs to be understood that the video needs to be short, in the 1-minute range, while still maintaining its message. Other schools have done it successfully, there’s no reason we cannot.
One of the things that the writing classes here at Lawrence Tech attempt to enforce in each assignment is the Banned Errors List. This list, which is given to each student at the beginning of every humanities and writing class every semester, exists to promote good writing practices. In addition, two writing-intensive classes, Foundations of the American Experience and Development of the American Experience, strive to promote concision in writing, while still maintaining a message (essentially, bullshit-free writing).
The description of this YouTube video is filled with banned errors, including simple-to-fix comma placement when listing more than two subjects.
The description page, unedited:
offers more than 100 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree programs in the Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Management. Founded in 1932, the 4,500-student, private university pioneered evening classes and today has a growing number of weekend and online programs. Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus is in Southfield, and programs are also offered in Detroit, Lansing, Petoskey and Traverse City. Lawrence Tech also offers programs with partner universities in Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East and Asia
I’ll give a little bit of slack to missing “Lawrence Tech” at the very beginning. I will not give slack, however, when it comes to proof reading. The uploader absolutely should have proofread the description before making this video public. The description lists many items, but does so in a confusing way that isn’t clear unless read multiple times.
Finally, before even pressing the play button, this video and description was placed, for a time, as the default video that plays when you visit youtube.com/lawrencetech.
These points alone boggle my mind and make me wonder who would ever think this would properly represent our university.
I hit the play button, and watched for 5 solid minutes. For five solid minutes, I’m awed and disgusted at this “promotional” video for our school.
The hodge-podge of b-roll, interview clips, and stock footage appears to have been produced in 1980. This contrasts the very first few lines of the voiceover, stating that students use cutting-edge technology. (I suppose that line does explain something, since perhaps only the students use cutting-edge technology…)
The style is very generic, as if to appease our school to some kind of board or committee. A faceless, nameless narrator voices over the features and benefits of a Lawrence Tech education. The video, which again is a semi-random collection of b-roll from the past three decades… well appears that way. Snap zooms and skewed shots cut to slow dolly shots which cut to more snap zooms… video is very inconsistent.
Several rules that have been taught in the media communication program are seemingly broken, and not in a way that helps to promote the message. One interview is shot with the subject seated with her back to a wall, casting a harsh and distracting shadow on the wall, while the camera is shoulder-height looking down upon her. Another outdoor interview is clearly out-of-focus, even in poor 240p quality.
We won’t even discuss this film-like, blurry mess at 3:15.
At 4:41, while only visible for a few seconds, the video is clearly captured from a VHS tape (anyone who grew up with a VCR that had dirty mis-tracked heads are familiar with the noise it produces).
And while this trainwreck continues on, the same generic guitar music loops in the background for five minutes.
It concludes with the most impressive item in the whole video: a relatively-generic blue aurora-style graphic with the school’s logo superimposed on top… followed by 35 seconds of blank, black video.
The poor quality of this YouTube video is an embarrassment, and I am in disbelief that someone uploaded this video to the official University YouTube page knowing that it would represent the university to anyone who has access to it (the World). I understand I may only be a student when it comes to marketing and video production, however a zoological student can still spot a sick animal when he or she sees one.
Update 12/2/2010: Response Curve - Additions and a few other things
5:36 pm |
November 23 2010
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tagged: LTU Lawrence Tech YouTube bad marketing i write stuff tl;dr
Look, as college students, it’s a fair assumption to say that we’re all looking to do the least amount of work, while still receiving the most amount of credit. Historically, I’ve simply called this “academic efficiency”. However it has come to my attention that there is a line between academic efficiency and laziness.
There’s a golden rule to academic efficiency that must always be adhered to: You never reveal to the professor that you’re looking to do the least amount of work. In other words, you never ask the forbidden question of, “Is this going to be on the test?”
For me, “academic efficiency” is about not only doing the minimum amount of work possible, but also getting something out of the course being taken. Someone asking “Is this going to be on the test” means to me that you’re being lazy. I don’t just write a 3-page paper filled with bullshit, but instead I write a 3-page paper with only the information needed to get the best grade. In the process of determining what that necessary information is, I learn.
It’s not a bad way to go, really. But I wish everyone else in my classes would stop being lazy and actually think and analyze what’s being taught to us. People might actually learn something.
8:26 am |
November 19 2010
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tagged: i write stuff
I’m a Sci-Fi guy. My dad had the 6-VHS boxed set of the first six Star Trek movies, and I watched many of them religiously (IV, VI) when I was a child. I’m well-known to be a Battlestar Galactica fanboy. Independence Day was my favourite movie from 1996 thru 1998. The Matrix stole my imagination (and money) from 1999-2004. Unapologetically, I’m a sci-fi guy.
However I am not a fantasy guy. I never was a fan of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or The Chronicles of Narnia. So in middle school, 1998/99 timeframe, when Harry Potter entered into the mainstream, I eschewed it as another piece of fantasy media that I had no interest in.
The nail in the coffin was in my middle school homeroom, where our teacher would read us 20-minute excerpts of the first book everyday, for a whole semester. The dirt unloaded on the coffin came in the form of our teacher dressing up as Mcgonagall for Halloween. Even if I did have any interest in Harry Potter before then, it disappeared after that year.
That attitude continued on for years, including a sigh of disbelief when a classmate of mine showed our video editing class a project she and her friends put together as hardcore HP fans. It still even continued after Danielle and I started dating, who is also an unapologetic HP fan.
Then last year my family traveled to the Philippines to visit friends and family; the same time that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was in theaters, at least internationally. There was one day that our family decided to visit a theater in Bacolod, and the choices of movies worth seeing was HP or 2012. My sisters and cousins decided on HP, and I thought “what the hell, why not.”
Needless to say, even with no exposure to anything else in the HP universe, I was blown away by the story. The depth of all the characters, the complexity of everything in the universe, hell, the entire world that had been created… I was pretty shocked and blown away by what I had missed out by ignoring the existence of the franchise over the past decade.
I’m not a reader; I appreciate books, I understand and acknowledge the importance of books and novels to society, however I have an absolute deficiency when it comes to sitting down and reading. But I have made an effort to “read” the audiobook version of Deathly Hallows.
On the cusp of the movie release tonight, I’m excited.
I’m a fan of Harry Potter.
1:57 pm |
November 18 2010
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tagged: harry potter i write stuff
I stopped by the AT&T store today to resolve a billing issue when I noticed they had WP7 demo phones out. After getting that resolved, I played mostly with the Samsung Focus, which the blogosphere has dubbed the Windows Phone to get.
My only gripe with the Focus is the feel of the phone in my hand. It felt ridiculously lightweight and plastic-y. The HTC phone with the slide-out speaker, while gimmicky, felt like a solid piece of hardware. The Focus felt like it would shatter if I touched it the wrong way.
The WP7 interface itself is quick, responsive, and intuitive. One major feature that Microsoft has pushed with this phone is how it syncs with the all knowing cloud that is the internet.
I tapped on the Xbox Live tile, and logged into my Xbox account. This is where WP7 is almost too good - logging in once to Xbox Live automatically logged me into all the other Live services. My Messenger friends began popping up in the People hub, I was logged into the Zune Marketplace, a few old pictures came up in the Pictures hub.
On the one hand, if it were my WP7 phone, this would be great. But on an in-store demo phone this was possibly bad. I tried logging out of Xbox Live and all the other Live services, but apparently there is no way to log out (there probably is, but in the little time I had, I couldn’t find it). After a few minutes I figured out how to do a full-phone reset (sorry AT&T if I screwed up one of your demo units) and that reset and logged me out of WP7.
The fact that WP7 instantly retrieved my information from my Live account was fantastic; a single login instantly made the phone “mine”. But since I don’t use Live services extensively (I’m a Gmail/Facebook kind of guy) if I were to get a Windows Phone I definitely need to get my Live account organized first. (Paul Thurrott covers this in his review of Windows Phone 7).
Overall I’m impressed by the software, but slightly underwhelmed with the choices of hardware. Again, the Focus is nice, but doesn’t feel as robust as the HTC Surround, which itself felt a little gimmicky with the slide-out speaker. I think for now I’ll wait until something like a Focus 2 or a large-screen not-gimmicky HTC Evo-style phone appears on AT&T.
5:15 pm |
November 13 2010
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tagged: at&t windows phone wp7 technology i write stuff
Many people in and around my life have peeved me off recently with this sort of attitude; an attitude of negativity and what cannot be done.”This technological device doesn’t have a specific feature and isn’t worth buying.” “I don’t have a good camera, so I can’t do this project.” ”I can’t do this because I have a child.” ”I don’t know how to do this.”
A buddy of mine was commenting on how the new Xbox Kinect doesn’t recognize finger movements. It astounds me how there’s this relatively inexpensive technological device in front of you that can detect body movements, do voice and facial recognition, follow your movements around a room, and you complain about a small thing like finger movements not registering? Really?
That’s one thing, nit-picking about a singular feature. Fine. (I just had to address that, and it sort of fits). But what has gotten me is how some people use certain circumstances to explain why something isn’t done. A common situation that has occurred multiple times over the past few years of being in media communication is that someone lacks a proper camera or proper device to complete a project.
Perhaps this is just a situation where people aren’t resourceful enough. Fair enough. However some of the best pieces of work I’ve seen on the internet have been completed using the lowest-quality devices with the most inexpensive software and equipment. A year ago, a classmate of mine did an interview project using the built-in iSight webcam on his MacBook. My point is that if you have something that has to be done, my gods get it done however you can. Don’t let these godsdamn excuses sit between you and what you want to accomplish.
And for godssake, “I don’t know” is the lamest frakking excuse you could ever use. The internet, Google, Bing, Wikipedia - these are all resources that sit in front of you. Not to knock on my professors over the past two years, but I legitimately feel like I’ve gained more knowledge in my field by following how-to articles online than I have in classroom occasionally.
Don’t know how to do something? Look it up. Do some work. Can’t do something with the equipment you have? Fine, what can you do with the equipment you have? Stay positive.
I’m tired of excuses, people.
4:38 pm |
November 11 2010
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tagged: rant people pet peeves tl;dr i write stuff
